Boyne City firefighter charged with embezzlement

Alleged theft involved fuel card

BOYNE CITY — A former Boyne City firefighter faces felony criminal charges for allegedly stealing nearly $30,000 in taxpayer dollars with a city fuel card.

Authorities filed embezzlement and theft with a financial device charges last month against Derby Arly Hayden IV, 32, of Boyne City, after an investigation that uncovered unauthorized fuel purchases that date back more than three years. He faces up to 10 years in prison and fines up to three times the amount embezzled, if convicted.

City manager Mike Cain said Tuesday the probe started when Boyne City Fire Department officials began this year's budget process and discovered "excessive expenditures" in the oil and gas account. Court records show the Boyne City Police investigation involved video surveillance at a self-serve fuel station in Boyne City and a financial review that uncovered illicit purchases that started in October 2008 on a single missing fuel charge card.

Officials became doubly curious because most charges on the missing card purchased unleaded gas, when the card is assigned to a ladder truck that burns diesel fuel, court records show.

"My client feels terrible about this whole situation and wants to make things right as soon as he can," Kur said.

Boyne City officials first told the public about the ordeal at Tuesday's Boyne City Commission meeting.

"The city is shocked and greatly disappointed that an individual hired to work for and protect the public would end up stealing from it. We as an organization do not tolerate anything that betrays the public trust, especially for personal gain," Cain said while reading from a prepared statement at the meeting's end. "Despite all our safeguards this individual found a weakness in our system that he exploited for his own benefit. His actions are completely contrary to the spirit of public service that the members of our fire department and all city employees demonstrate daily. As devastating as this betrayal is, we will learn from this incident and work to maintain the trust of our citizens, taxpayers and all those we interact with."

Boyne City fire chief Dennis Amesbury referred all questions to Cain, who declined to elaborate beyond the released statement. The city's interim police chief Craig Remsberg directed questions to the Charlevoix County Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutor John Jarema had stern words about the case.

"Embezzlement is a crime that unfortunately is on the rise. In my opinion, it is a direct result of our economic climate. It is a violation of trust. It is egregious if it is a small business, a large business or a public entity. Unfortunately our community is a trusting community and we really don't want to believe that this can happen here, but it happens all the time," Jarema said in a written response to questions.

Cain said the city anticipates and will insist on full recovery of the stolen amount, either from Hayden or its insurance company. Officials also will find ways to prevent similar incidents from happening again, he said.